Audio is one of the most important aspects of your gaming enjoyment. Modern games emphasize small audio cues and music that are meant to bring a new level of immersion to the game. If you play games with friends it’s equally important for you to have a headset with a quality microphone. Today I will be reviewing the HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless gaming headset. I’ll be discussing the audio quality, controls, comfort, battery life, and share my final thoughts.
HyperX Cloud Alpha design and comfort
At just 0.7lbs the Cloud Alpha wireless headphones are incredibly light. To achieve this weight the Cloud Alpha’s body is a combination of aluminum and plastic. Despite the light weight, in hand the headset feels sturdy and durable. In terms of design, the Cloud Alpha is straightforward simplistic. There are no fancy RGB LEDs or any other bells and whistles. It’s clear that the HyperX is focused on the user experience and the features that make a good gaming headset.
The ear cups and headband of the headset are lined with memory foam covered by soft faux leather. In my testing I found the Cloud Alpha to be comfortable and breathable. During long meetings and gaming sessions my ears continued to feel cool. Overall, I found that I could wear the headphones for hours without any discomfort or fatigue.
If there was anything I wished that HyperX included in the design it would be the ability to swivel the earphones. In their current state, the earphones are static and do not swivel left or right. For me, this meant that I had to adjust headphones so that they would sit comfortably on my head. When earpieces have swivel joints it allows the earpieces to move slightly to better fit the shape of your head. On top of that, when you take off the headphones you can comfortably rest them on your shoulders with the earpiece foam facing downwards. But overall, this is a minor inconvenience in an otherwise great design.
Cloud Alpha wireless connectivity and audio quality
According to HyperX, the Cloud Alpha gaming wireless headset works with PC, Playstation, and Xbox. It connects to these platforms via USB-A dongle and uses a 2.4GHZ wireless connection. In my testing the Cloud Alpha was also compatible with Chromebooks and Macbooks.
The HyperX Cloud Alpha has impressive audio quality. The headset comes with 50mm dual chamber drivers. These chambers separate the base from the mid and high tones and creates clearer audio for the listener. While playing Call of Duty Warzone the dual chambers were effective in creating clear sounds. This was most noticeable when communicating with my teammates during battle. I could hear the deep bass from explosions while also being able to clearly understand what my teammates were saying. The Cloud Alpha also comes with Digital SurroundSound (DTS) headphone X Spatial Audio. When you combine the dual chamber drivers with DTS the effect is incredibly pleasing. This combination really delivered when watching movies. All in all, the Cloud Alpha headset sounds great out of the box. However, if you want to adjust the sound profile this can be done using HyperX’s NGENUITY software. Here you can select from pre-set profiles or create your own profile and turn on/off the DTS.
Cloud Alpha controls and microphone
The Cloud Alpha headset has simple, easy to use controls. On the left earpiece there is a power button and a microphone mute button, and on the right earpiece there is a volume wheel. The power on and mute buttons are easy to press and have a distinct tactile feel making it easy for you to know which button you’re pressing. Likewise, the volume wheel has clear tactical feedback when you are making volume adjustments. Overall, while playing games, watching movies, or having video calls I found the controls easy to learn and had no issues operating them by feel.
The Cloud Alpha’s microphone is clear and comes with built in noise cancelling technology. This means that the microphone will filter out ambient noise while isolating your voice. This is a welcome feature for me because I like to multitask during games and meetings. With most headsets I need to mute my microphone while I’m in my kitchen making food. However with the noise cancelling microphone in the Cloud Alpha this is not necessary. Of course if you need to mute the microphone you can do this by pressing the mute microphone button on the left ear piece. Muting the microphone will cause a red LED indicator on the microphone to turn on, which acts as a visual guide in case you forget your microphone is muted.
While most headsets have a retractable microphone, the microphone of the HyperX Cloud Alpha is detachable. It connects to the headset using a 3.5mm audio jack. It took some time to get used to this but I enjoyed the simplicity of removing the microphone when not using it. Although the Cloud Alpha is already light, being able to remove the microphone makes the headset feel even lighter.
HyperX Cloud Alpha battery life
The Cloud Alpha wireless headset’s most impressive feature is its battery life. The HyperX website states that the Cloud Alpha wireless has a 300 hour battery life on a single charge. In my testing I found this to be accurate. Using these headphones for 3-5 hours daily over the course of 2 weeks the Cloud Alpha’s battery life currently sits at an impressive 80%. It’s safe to say that users will not find themselves worrying about charging the Cloud Alpha in between gaming sessions. According to the HyperX, it takes 4.5 hours to fully charge the Cloud Alpha from 0 to 100%. Charging the headset is done via the USB-C charging port located on the left earpiece.
How has HyperX achieved such a long battery life? Unlike other gaming headsets the Cloud Alpha does not include battery draining features. There are no RGB LEDs or active noise cancellation technology to slowly eat away at battery life. The only LEDs you’ll find on the Cloud Alpha are the charging indicator and the microphone mute indicator. Further contributing to the amazing battery life is the Cloud Alpha’s larger than average 1500mah 5.55 Wh battery.
Final thoughts on the HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless gaming headset
As someone who’s a casual gamer and works from home, a good headset has become more important to me than ever. For me, a good headset doesn’t just have great audio, it also needs to be comfortable, have great battery life, and a good microphone. The HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless gaming headset ticks all of these boxes. Its impressive 300 hour battery life, simplistic design, and noise canceling microphone make this a great all-round headset for games, movies, and productivity. If you don’t mind the lack of earphone swivel I highly recommend that you check out these headphones. You can also explore more gaming peripherals from HyperX at bestbuy.ca.
